1965 – The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
1963 landmark recording of Allegri’s Miserere featuring treble soloist Roy Goodman – reissued in 1965 as a 45 rpm EP.
Recording Type: Commercial Recording
A recording made available for sale to the general public
1965 – Regensburger Domspatzen
A particularly fine rendition of the Miserere without abbellimenti. Reissued by RCA Victor Canada.
1966 – Amherst College Glee Club
The best of the Glee Club recordings to date – a degree of expressiveness and quality not even seen in the Harvard performances. In fact, the whole album is a delight, no doubt aided by the quality of the recording and the near-mint condition of the copy.
1967 – Guildford Cathedral Choir
A fabulous parallel to the King’s College ‘Evensong for Ash Wednesday’ – ‘Music for Passiontide’ also ends with the Miserere in English, a refreshing performance of equal merit which is further enhanced by its placement as the last item in this Passiontide collection.
1968 – Chor und Orchester von St. Michael, München
This performance of the Miserere by the Choir of St. Michael, München is oddly not recorded in their own church, but in an Abbey church some 25km north-west of Munich. Of early recordings, it is a superior performance “without abbellimenti”. There are two flavours of this reissue with different album covers – potentially from different years – however no date for the second version (with a patterned cover) can be located.
1972 – The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
This compilation album was released in 1972, the same year the curator of miserere.org was born. The ‘World of King’s opens with ‘Zadok the Priest’ (Handel) and besides the ‘Miserere’ contains treasures such as ‘This is the record of John’ (Gibbons) and Croft’s ‘Burial Service’ – notable in the King’s recording for being sung in procession around the chapel. For many, this will be the first time that the ‘Miserere’ was heard, and the release of this compilation was, in our opinion, part of the reason that Allegri’s ‘Miserere’ is so recognisable and appreciated today.
1976 – The Choir of Winchester Cathedral
This second Golden Hour from Winchester again draws on the inexhaustible riches of the church music repertory to present a sample of some of the different types and styles heard in the course of the cathedral’s day to day life. [from the cover notes]
1977 – Regensburger Domspatzen
A particularly fine rendition of the Miserere without abbellimenti, this pressing is much more acceptable in terms of audio characteristics than the earlier pressing in the Archive.
1977 – Ohio State University Men’s Glee Club
Another outstanding Glee Club performance of the Davison arrangement for mens voices. The pedal ‘D’ in the bass in the final cadence is especially fine. We have been unable to locate the venue for this recording – please get in touch if you can help with any information.
1978 – Christ’s Hospital Singers
A fascinating recording by the A Cappella Choir of Christ’s Hospital School. The Miserere is unique in its use of a modified setting of the SATB section (the remainder mirrors Atkins), which both compresses and simplifies whilst still retaining the high ‘C’. Other features of the album include ‘Sound the Trumpet’ (Purcell), an excellent ‘Hear my Prayer’ Mendelssohn), and the school hymn ‘Praise the Lord for our Foundation’. Andrew March, the 1st treble – should be highly commended. John Shippen, who conducted the Miserere, was kind enough to share details of the recording with miserere.org.